Landing Sites
In this multi-temporal illumination map of the lunar south pole,
Shackleton crater (19 km diameter) is in the center, the south pole is
located approximately at 9 o'clock on its rim. The map was created
from images from the camera aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Credits: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
NASA is working right now to send American astronauts to the surface
of the Moon in five years, and the agency has its sights set on a
place no humans have ever gone before: the lunar South Pole.
Water is a critical resource for long-term exploration, and that's one
of the main reasons NASA will send astronauts to the Moon's South Pole
by 2024. Water is a necessity for furthering human exploration because
it could potentially be used for drinking, cooling equipment,
breathing and making rocket fuel for missions farther into the solar
system. The experience NASA gains on the Moon, including using lunar
natural resources, will be used to help prepare the agency to send
astronauts to Mars.
"We know the South Pole region contains ice and may be rich in other
resources based on our observations from orbit, but, otherwise, it's a
completely unexplored world," said Steven Clarke, deputy associate
administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters
in Washington. "The South Pole is far from the Apollo landing sites
clustered around the equator, so it will offer us a new challenge and
a new environment to explore as we build our capabilities to travel
farther into space."
The South Pole is also a good target for a future human landing
because robotically, it's the most thoroughly investigated region on
the Moon.
The elliptical, polar orbit of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
(LRO) is closest to the Moon during its pass over the South Pole
region. Through its thousands of orbits in the last decade, LRO has
collected the most precise information about the South Pole region
than any other, offering scientists precise details about its
topography, temperature and locations of likely frozen water.
"We've mapped every square meter, even areas of permanent shadow,"
said Noah Petro, an LRO project scientist based at NASA's Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
There's still so much to learn about Earth's nearest neighbor. Ahead
of a human return, NASA is planning many to send new science
instruments and technology demonstration payloads to the Moon using
commercial landers through Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS).
These robotic precursors will further investigate regions of interest
to human explorers, including the South Pole, and will provide
information to the engineers designing modern lunar surface systems.
Water on the Moon
The floors of polar craters reach frigid temperatures because they're
permanently in shadow as a result of the low angle at which sunlight
strikes the Moon's surface in the polar regions (and also because the
Moon has no atmosphere to help warm up its surface). This angle is
based on the 1.54-degree tilt of the Moon's axis (Earth's is 23.5
degrees). If an astronaut was standing near the South Pole, the Sun
would always appear on the horizon, illuminating the surface sideways,
and, thus, skimming primarily the rims of deep craters, and leaving
their deep interiors in shadow.
These permanently shadowed craters feature some of the lowest
temperatures in the solar system — down to -414 degrees Fahrenheit
(-248 Celsius). Water ice is stable at these temperatures and it is
believed that some of these craters harbor significant ice deposits.
Video: Permanent Shadows on the Moon
The South Pole's frozen water may date back billions of years and has
been untainted by the Sun's radiation or the geological processes that
otherwise constantly churn and renew planetary surfaces (think of wind
and erosion on Earth), offering us a window into the early solar
system.
"That record of water collection is a record that can help us
understand how water and other volatiles have been moving around the
solar system, so we're very interested in getting to these locations
and sampling the material there," said John W. Keller, a lunar
scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
Maryland. Studying samples of ice from polar regions of Earth, for
example, has revealed how our planet's climate and atmosphere have
evolved over thousands of years.
Constant Light and Power
Other extremes at the Moon's South Pole are not so dark and cold —
there are also areas, near Shackleton crater for instance, that are
bathed in sunlight for extended periods of time, over 200 Earth days
of constant illumination. This happens also because of the Moon's tilt
and is a phenomenon that we experience at our own polar regions on
Earth. Unrelenting sunlight is a boon to Moon missions, allowing
explorers to harvest sunlight in order to light up a lunar base and
power its equipment.
The president's direction from Space Policy Directive-1 galvanizes
NASA's return to the Moon and builds on progress on the Space Launch
System rocket and Orion spacecraft, collaborations with U.S industry
and international partners, and knowledge gained from current robotic
assets at the Moon and Mars.
Last Updated: April 16, 2019
Editor: Brian Dunbar
Tags: Goddard Space Flight Center, Moon to Mars
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Good Clear Skies
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Astrocomet
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Colin James Watling
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Various Voluntary work-Litter Picking for Parish Council (Daytime) and
also a friend of Kessingland Beach (Watchman)
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Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/astrocomera
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Real Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and
Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland
Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)
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Lyra Main Website: http://www.lyra-astro.co.uk/
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